代表作2

　　英文原文

　　Reviews of rules help safeguard authority of Constitution

　　CAO YIN

　　In recent years, China has intensified the review of normative documents, including administrative regulations and judicial interpretations, to ensure they do not contradict the Constitution.??The effort has played a major role in effectively implementing Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law in further upholding the authority of the Constitution, the fundamental law.??At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017, President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, called for stronger oversight to ensure compliance with the Constitution, requiring intensified reviews of it to safeguard its authority.??In a central conference on work related to overall law-based governance last November, Xi stressed that in order to promote the modernization of China's governance system and capacity along the path of the rule of law, it is necessary to require every entity, including government agencies, Party organs, social organizations and enterprises, to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining the dignity of the Constitution and ensuring its implementation.??Under the central leadership's requirement, the country has accelerated efforts to strengthen reviews to determine whether normative documents conflict with the Constitution.??In December 2019, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, adopted a guideline that specified what normative documents need to be reviewed and that those items that are inconsistent with the Constitution should be corrected or removed.??The committee's Legislative Affairs Commission has been required to include the reviews in their annual regulation filings and work report to the NPC Standing Committee, which means that the reviews have been further regulated and that the work the commission is doing to implement the fundamental law has also been made public.??The commission has made this report every year since 2017, but items that contradicted the Constitution were not clearly listed in the report before 2020.??"The 2020 report to the NPC Standing Committee made a breakthrough in terms of reviews concerning the Constitution," said Liang Ying, an official of the Legislative Affairs Commission. "Previously, our work related to the Constitution was rarely shown to the public in such a straightforward manner.??"The breakthrough will help the nation adhere to Constitution-based governance, as required by President Xi, and it will also contribute to implementing the Constitution, upholding its authority and deeply advancing the rule of law nationwide," he said.??A report submitted to the NPC Standing Committee in January highlighted scrutiny involving the Constitution and discussed three cases in which people questioned laws, regulations or documents that they believe conflicted with the Constitution.??One of the cases involved Fang Shimin, a resident of Xuancheng, Anhui province. He wrote a seven-page letter to the commission in February 2018, complaining that a judicial interpretation appeared to conflict with the Constitution.??According to Fang, the compensation standard for personal damages to rural residents in incidents such as traffic accidents or plane crashes in the interpretation－which was issued by the Supreme People's Court, the nation's top court－differed from that for urban residents.??To Fang, the difference meant the life of a rural resident was not equal to the lives of urban residents. "It's unfair, and it's inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution and the principle of the General Provisions of Civil Code," he said and suggested the commission review the interpretation.??After reading the letter, Liang's office solicited opinions from the top court and the commission's civil division. Then it asked the court to correct or improve the interpretation at an appropriate time and share the process of the case's handling with Fang. In response, the court asked local courts to work on unifying the standard in September 2019. Although that work continues, the top court said it will improve the interpretation as quickly as possible.??"Ensuring that normative documents are consistent with the Constitution has always been a key criterion in our work, although it was not clearly mentioned in our work reports before," Liang said, adding that efforts to cast more light on the process can be attributed to the closer attention paid by the central leadership and also the increasing awareness of the public.??According to Legislative Affairs Commission statistics, the NPC Standing Committee received 5,146 review suggestions from individuals and organizations last year. From these, the public put forward more than 100 suggestions on whether related documents were consistent with the Constitution.??"It was a large number, which we hadn't seen before," Liang said.??More efforts urged??Qin Qianhong, deputy head of the Association of Constitutional Law with the China Law Society, has been following the review of normative documents made by the NPC Standing Committee in recent years. He said the top legislature has greatly contributed to the nation's adherence to Constitution-based governance.??"It brought the fundamental law closer to the people and has made it more influential in every aspect of their lives," said Qin, who is also a professor at Wuhan University in Hubei province who specializes in the Constitution.??He welcomed the report on the review, regarding it as a way to publicly uphold the dignity of the Constitution and help more people understand the law.??The NPC established the Constitution and Law Committee in March 2018. Later that year, the committee set up an office devoted to the study of the Constitution.??"Since then, our country has had a specialized department to focus on the Constitution and respond to relevant issues of the law," Qin said. "Its establishment showed significant progress in the adherence to Constitution-based governance nationwide."??While strengthening the review of normative documents to ensure they do not contradict the Constitution, the committee has also intensified similar scrutiny over the drafting or amending of laws as well as in the issuance of legal decisions.??A draft decision on the opening date of the NPC's full session in 2020 was submitted for deliberation to the NPC Standing Committee in February last year. It explained that the annual meeting was postponed to ensure epidemic control and prevention and clarified that the decision was made in line with the Constitution.??"That is to say, adherence to Constitution-based governance and respect for the rule of law were carried out throughout the top legislature's work," Qin said.??Furthermore, government officials have been ordered to take an oath to the Constitution before they are sworn in, and China has also named Dec 4 as its annual Constitution Day.??In 2019, the central leadership called for effective implementation and supervision of the Constitution at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, saying that the procedure of interpreting the Constitution should be implemented and the reviews on whether normative documents are consistent with the fundamental law also need to be promoted.??Research on issues??While document reviews have been strengthened over the past few years, "we have also been conducting more research on issues related to the Constitution", Liang said. "Problems involving the Constitution in drafting documents or making decisions should be notified to NPC Standing Committee in a timely manner, and the top legislature should interpret the law or relevant content in the law if necessary."??According to Liang, the commission has always attached importance to academic studies related to the Constitution. It helped Beihang University establish a research center for improving the system of normative document reviews and supported Zhejiang University in launching specialized courses on the subject.??"Next, we'll further increase theoretical research on reviews involving the Constitution. We'll urge more experts to focus on the issues, and we'll build a review-related database to strengthen the combination of the theory and practice," he said.

　　譯文如下：

　　推進合憲性審查對維護憲法權威起到重要作用

　?。?021年10月18日《中國日報》頭版見報轉4版）

　　中國日報記者：曹音

　　近年來，中國切實加強了包括行政法規(guī)和司法解釋在內(nèi)的規(guī)范性文件合憲性審查，以確保其內(nèi)容同憲法規(guī)定相符合。

　　此舉為貫徹落實習近平法治思想關于維護憲法這一基本大法的權威的要求起到了重要作用。

　　2017年，黨的十九大召開，中共中央總書記、國家主席、中央軍委主席習近平代表第十八屆中央委員會向大會作報告。報告提出，要加強憲法實施和監(jiān)督，推進合憲性審查工作，維護憲法權威。

　　2020年11月，中央全面依法治國工作會議召開。習近平總書記強調(diào)，要堅定不移地走中國特色社會主義法治道路，為全面建設社會主義現(xiàn)代化國家提供有力法治保障。他提出，要堅持依憲治國、依憲執(zhí)政，全國各族人民、一切國家機關和武裝力量、各政黨和各社會團體、各企業(yè)事業(yè)組織，都負有維護憲法尊嚴、保證憲法實施的職責。

　　在黨中央的堅強領導和明確要求下，中國合憲性審查工作按下“快進鍵”。

　　2019年12月，全國人大常委會審議通過了《法規(guī)、司法解釋備案審查工作辦法》（以下簡稱《辦法》），進一步明確了備案審查范圍和審查職責，規(guī)定不合憲的規(guī)范性文件，應當予以修改或廢止。

　　根據(jù)《辦法》，全國人大常委會法工委在備案審查工作中加大了對規(guī)范性文件合憲性審查的力度，并將此內(nèi)容通過《2020年備案審查工作情況報告》向全國人大常委會予以說明。

　　自2017年起，全國人大常委會開始聽取備案審查工作報告，但有關合憲性、涉憲性的內(nèi)容在2020年報告公開前鮮少披露。

　　這次“披露”在全國人大常委會法工委法規(guī)備案審查室主任梁鷹看來，是近年來合憲性審查工作的“突破”?！耙酝苌僦苯?、正面地對合憲性審查的內(nèi)容予以強調(diào)?！彼f。

　　梁鷹表示，這次“突破”有助于貫徹落實堅持依憲治國，也將對推進憲法實施監(jiān)督、維護憲法權威、深化全面依法治國起到重要作用。

　　2021年1月全國人大常委會聽取的《2020年備案審查工作情況報告》對合憲性、涉憲行問題進行了重點關注，同時還披露了3件公民提出的合憲性審查建議及其辦理情況。

　　其中一件來自安徽宣城居民方詩敏。2018年2月，方詩敏給全國人大常委會法工委寫了一封信，整整7頁A4紙，內(nèi)容與最高人民法院的一件司法解釋有關。

　　方詩敏在信中指出，最高法在司法解釋中確立的人身損害賠償計算標準區(qū)別對待城鎮(zhèn)居民和農(nóng)村居民。這在方詩敏看來，意味著“同命不同價”。“這與憲法有關精神不一致，也不符合民法總則規(guī)定的平等、公平原則，建議對該司法解釋進行合憲性審查?！彼谛胖袑懙馈?/p>

　　收到信后，法工委備案審查室先后征求最高人民法院、法工委民法室意見。經(jīng)審查研究，法工委建議最高人民法院適時完善相關制度，并及時向方詩敏反饋了審查研究結果。

　　2019年9月，最高人民法院已授權各省、自治區(qū)、直轄市高級人民法院、新疆生產(chǎn)建設兵團分院開展統(tǒng)一城鄉(xiāng)人身損害賠償試點工作。雖然目前該試點工作仍在進行中，最高人民法院表示，將盡快對此司法解釋作出修改。

　　“在法規(guī)、司法解釋備案審查過程中，對合憲性、涉憲性問題作出研究處理是備案審查工作的常規(guī)內(nèi)容，但確實沒有在此前的工作報告中特別強調(diào)?！绷胡椪f。他指出，隨著國家對合憲性審查逐步重視，以及公民法律意識的不斷提升，這些年相關工作顯現(xiàn)實質性進展。

　　據(jù)全國人大常委會法工委數(shù)據(jù)顯示，2020年全國人大常委會共收到公民、組織提出的審查建議5146件。其中，社會各界提出的合憲性審查建議多達百余件。

　　“這不是個小數(shù)目，是以往沒有過的。”梁鷹說。

　　砥礪前行

　　中國法學會憲法學研究會副會長秦前紅對合憲性審查工作持續(xù)關注。在他看來，這些年全國人大常委會在維護憲法權威、堅持依憲治國方面已取得長足進步。

　　“全國人大常委會不斷激活憲法潛能，讓憲法成為百姓看得見、摸得著的國家根本大法。”同時也在武漢大學法學院任教的秦前紅補充說道。

　　他為全國人大常委會開始聽取合憲性審查工作情況的舉措“點贊”，認為這是向公眾表明要維護憲法尊嚴和權威的具體表現(xiàn)。

　　2018年3月，全國人大憲法和法律委員會成立。同年，全國人大常委會法工委增設憲法室，加強對憲法法律的研究。

　　在秦前紅看來，這意味著我國有了回應涉憲問題、保證憲法得到切實遵守和執(zhí)行的專門機構，是推進依憲治國工作的一大進步。

　　在加強合憲性審查的同時，全國人大憲法和法律委員會也在審議有關法律草案時，對涉憲性問題進行研究，已確認其符合憲法規(guī)定、原則和精神。

　　比如，在《關于推遲召開第十三屆全國人民代表大會第三次會議的決定（草案）》的說明中，就明確：根據(jù)當前疫情形勢和防控工作需要，適時推遲全國人民代表大會會議舉行時間，符合憲法原則和精神。

　　秦前紅說：“這就是說，捍衛(wèi)憲法權威貫穿了國家最高立法機關的整個立法過程。”

　　此外，國家工作人員就職時需向憲法宣誓，每年12月4日也被確定為國家憲法日。

　　黨的十九屆四中全會也明確提出，加強憲法實施和監(jiān)督，落實憲法解釋程序機制，推進合憲性審查工作。

　　繼續(xù)深耕

　　梁鷹告訴記者，盡管合憲性審查工作在這些年取得了進步，但有關合憲性審查的理論研究工作還需要繼續(xù)深耕?！案鞣矫妗⒏鞯胤皆谥贫ǚㄒ?guī)規(guī)章中遇到涉及憲法問題的情形，要及時向全國人大常委會提出。全國人大常委會也會在必要時對憲法有關規(guī)定作出解釋?！彼f。

　　梁鷹指出，全國人大法工委高度重視合憲性審查的理論研究工作。圍繞構建中國特色社會主義備案審查理論體系框架，法工委推動北京航空航天大學依托法學院建立了備案審查制度研究中心，還支持浙江大學法學院開展了備案審查專題課程。

　　“下一步，我們將繼續(xù)加強合憲性審查和備案審查理論研究，鼓勵更多專家專注于此類研究，并建立備案審查專家委員會，促進理論與實踐相結合?！绷胡椦a充說道。（完）